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Friday, 10 May 2013

Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider OOO TaToBa combo

It's fair to say I got into the S.H. Figuarts line rather late. This year the Bandai action figure line is celebrating its fifth anniversary, and so considering I only really got into the line around the time Gokai Red was released I have a lot of catching up to do. Luckily Bandai have chosen to make things a little easier but offering a number of reissue Heisei era Kamen Riders over the next few months to coincide with their "Rider on Stage" campaign in celebration of the anniversary. The Kamen Rider OOO TaToBa combo was originally released back in February 2011.

With all the colours on OOO's body, it was probably a good call by Bandai to make the box white and use the black/red/yellow/green more sparingly. The white background makes the colours pop a lot more along the sides of the box, and the chest symbol looks great printed on the bottom of the plastic window. The back is a bit plainer, but still keeps the "OOO" circles motif intact while displaying the usual action poses. Despite being an older figure, I'd still rate this as one of the nicer Figuarts boxes I have.

Prior to receiving this figure I'd heard a lot of negative criticism about the TaToBa figure, along with the OOO combos in general (albeit less so). From what I gather these figures were rushed out to coincide with the beginning of the show, rather than the 5-6 month wait that happens with most Sentai/Rider figures now. Some people are perfectly fine with the figure, while others have complained about things such as soft hands, sloppy paint/QC and most significantly - terrible ankle joints. However without paying close attention to the figure he does look good - accurate to the costume and colourful. I especially like the metallic red paint of the head which looks great beside those green compound eyes.

It's once you start fiddling around with TaToBa that the problems start to become really apparent. Upon closer inspection I began to notice a paintjob that was not just blurry around the edges, but looked really cheap in the yellow sections. The chest medal restricts abdominal articulation, and the joints themselves feel much flimsier than other Figuarts (even earlier releases such as Decade, Diend and Cyclone Joker). The ankles are also just as bad as everyone says, and only really tilt from side to side in a very unrealistic manner. As far as hand swapping goes, TaToBa actually suffers from the complete opposite of usual Figuarts - the hands feel incredibly soft and malleable, so slip on and off of the wrist easily.

To put it simply, the figure feels cheap. Really cheap.

As the base form of Kamen Rider OOO there isn't a whole lot TaToBa could have come with the begin with, yet even with that in mind things are a little underwhelming. Included are 7 hands, the Madajalibur sword, the Medal Scanner and an swappable set of deployed claws (which are also longer than the retracted ones). Due to the soft nature of the wrists the claws are incredibly easy to switch out, and look great on the figure. But the question is, was a separate pair really necessary? Yes they're longer but would it have been so difficult to make the claws hinged instead? It would have added an extra play factor to the figure and perhaps hidden the very obvious flaws a lot better. It's a shame the reissue version couldn't have also included the OOO Rider stage, but that was instead saved for the new release Wizard Flame Dragon figure.

If you happen to buy one of the first release versions of TaToBa, you may also wind up with a bonus Ankh arm with stand (although the box laughably calls him "Unkh" instead). Since it isn't included in with the reissue I won't go into to much detail, but thought it worth mentioning.

I considered TaToBa an essential purchase since a) I've seen Kamen Rider OOO and b) I'm aiming to collect all the Riders' base forms, but I honestly find it difficult to recommend this figure. Other collectors have reported no problems with theirs but mine feels like one of the budget Kamen Rider figures than a Figuart. If you can get one cheap (and that shouldn't be too hard) then he might be an easier figure to accept, but paying full reissue price for him? No way.